


The Trouble with You

by modorenai



Category: K (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Sentinels & Guides, Alternate Universe - Sentinels and Guides Are Known, M/M, Sentinel/Guide
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-11
Updated: 2019-06-11
Packaged: 2020-04-24 12:59:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,335
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19173781
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/modorenai/pseuds/modorenai
Summary: Troublesome things were the bane of Fushimi Saruhiko's existence. So of course, this naturally meant that only one of the most troublesome existences that ever existingly existed in this existence would soon come crashing into his life like a monkey in a china shop - a certain Yata Misaki.





	The Trouble with You

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Icelette](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Icelette/gifts).



> Long overdue gift exchange fic for Icelette, who requested that I write her a Sentinelverse fic for her favourite K couple. I've only ever read one Sentinelverse fic in my life before (and that unintentionally), so after reading the materials she threw at me for research on the general "rules" of the Sentinelverse, I thought I wanted to try doing something different. So you'll see quite a few different terms here compared to those used in more "normal" Sentinelverse fics. A quick run-down of some of the terms that are used (or will be used) in this fic can be found in the notes at the bottom of this prologue.

 

Troublesome things were the bane of Fushimi Saruhiko's existence. 

The first time he had learnt the word "troublesome", he felt like he had been waiting to learn this word from the moment he had been born. Because it was the perfect word to describe pretty much everything and anything in his life.

School was troublesome. Life was troublesome. Dealing with the human beings in his life was troublesome. Human beings _themselves_ were the most annoying and troublesome things ever.

So naturally, it was a matter of course that the universe and all the powers that be would join forces and conspire together to give him the most troublesome power that could possibly exist in this world  - the year Fushimi Saruhiko turned 12, he Awakened to his powers as a Guide.

Of course. Of course someone who hated dealing with other human beings with every ounce of his own being would get the power to read minds. Not the power of eagle eyesight, or the power of heightened hearing, or the power of super smell, or the power of tactile touch, or the power of true taste (or whatever other pathetic excuses for alliterations that had been used in the government issued "Let's Learn! All about the Guardian System." pamphlets that had been handed out to every elementary 5th year student and which Saruhiko had chucked in a dusty corner of his room after he had skimmed through it). Instead, Saruhiko had gotten a power that forced him to become intimately acquainted with the innermost workings of the minds of all the people around him and all their two-faced hypocritical thoughts 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 (or sometimes 366) days a year. 

Of _fucking_  course. 

But that was fine (well, as fine as having to deal with a shit situation could be, anyway). As with all the troublesome things in his life, Fushimi dealt with it in two ways - one, by avoiding it, or two, by dealing with it.

It had been pretty rough in the beginning, because even though Fushimi had not been dumb enough to confide in his parents that he had become a Guide (once, many years ago, when he was still a young and innocent boy who naively believed that his parents loved him deep down in their hearts, he might have, but after being burned too many times to count, not even a single cinder of that young boy remained), somehow Niki had found out about his powers. Niki had immediately tried to mess with Saruhiko's mind by constantly thinking loud and painful thoughts at him - having to hear his father's verbal insults every day was already bad enough, but it was even worse when having them forcefully blasted into his mind meant that he didn't even have the option of blocking them out by sticking his fingers in his ears.

However, thanks to Niki's bombardment, Saruhiko soon learnt very quickly how to to throw up shields in his mind that kept him from hearing most of Niki's innermost thoughts, except when he wanted to, which was basically never because Saruhiko didn't see the need to delve further into that toxic mess that was his father's mind. His control over his mind shields weren't iron-clad though, because occasionally some thoughts would still slip through the cracks if they were exceptionally loud and strong, but they helped enough that he could feign disinterest convincingly enough; once Niki realised his new method of causing grief to his son was no longer effective, he grew bored and moved on (although of course he never stopped trying to find other ways to annoy him).

Of course, Saruhiko wasn't satisfied with simply stopping there once he learnt how to create mind shields - his academic-like curiosity compelled him to continually test the limits of his power to see what he was truly capable of. After much experimenting, Saruhiko found that aside from directing his powers inward directly into his own mind, he could also direct the powers _outward_ into the minds of others in order to subtly influence their perceptions of him.

It began with simple things, like using it to direct people's attention away from him, particularly with the occasional shallow love-smitten girl who would bounce up to him and try to exchange numbers with him because she liked his face, or with the meddlesome teacher who would try to approach Saruhiko to urge him to mend his anti-social ways and interact more with his classmates. A quick thought thrown in their direction would have them distracted by the next good-looking face or trouble-making student passing by, leaving Saruhiko to bask in blissful peace and quiet as they ran away to deal with their new targets.

However, the first time that Saruhiko realised the true potential of this aspect of his power was when he had been walking home and a bully had intentionally bumped into him. Living up to the bully cliche, said bully had then immediately tried to extort money from him, ostensibly for the hospital fees he would have to fork out for treating his "broken" arm. Naturally, Saruhiko had refused, and as the bully had thrown a fist in his direction, in his panic Saruhiko had instinctively _**pushed**_ outwards with his thoughts without even really knowing what he was doing.   

And suddenly, the bully's arm had missed its target. Thrown off balance, the bully nearly fell forward before he managed to right himself, staggering backward. There was a momentary silence as they stared at each other in equal confusion. Then, his face pinching in rage, the bully charged forward again like an angry bull. This time, Saruhiko had recovered his wits and was ready. Quickly but cautiously, he  ** _pushed_**.

This time, the bully's eyes widened in disbelief as his arm slowed down and juttered haltingly through the air as if he were in a video game that had had its frame rate significantly lowered. 

Saruhiko used the chance to strike. Aiming a sweeping kick at the bully, Saruhiko knocked out his legs from under him. Losing his balance, the bully fell heavily forward and hit his forehead on the concrete pavement below, the impact causing him to pass out.

Saruhiko stared down at the crumpled heap before him consideringly, his mind whizzing furiously as he tried to analyse what had just happened. Unlike the previous times when he had used his power to cause a momentary shift in his target's attention, this time it seemed like his power had affected not just his target's mind, but also his target's physical responses. It hadn't occured to him before, but now that he thought about it, that actually made sense because after all, a person's nervous system was essentially controlled by signals sent out by their mind. So if he could use his power to convince someone that the target they were punching was just _slightly_ more to the right than it actually was, or to deceive them into thinking that they were punching with all the force of a buffalo when in fact they were really exerting as much force as a mouse's paw, it seemed like those thoughts would actually manifest themselves physically in that person's body and cause that person to miss their target or to be unable to exert their strength.

A smirk spread slowly over Saruhiko's face. As expected, he was a _genius_. Tucking away this newfound discovery to be explored and experimented with further later, Saruhiko mentally patted himself on the back. Perhaps being a Guide wasn't as troublesome as he thought after all. Life was good - or well, at least as good as it could be in the shithole that was the world he lived in anyway.

So all was going as swimmingly well as it possibly could in the cesspool of Fushimi Saruhiko's life until he met the single most troublesome thing he had ever encountered that he could neither avoid nor deal with - a certain rambunctious young man named Yata Misaki. 

**Author's Note:**

> Terminology
> 
> •Guardian System - Basically the whole Sentinel/Guide/whatever thingamajig.  
> •Sentinels = People with all 5 senses enhanced.  
> •Guides = People with mind-reading abilities. Guides with strong powers are extremely rare because many cannot handle the stress of their Guide powers and die early. Guides with weak powers are somewhat rare.  
> •Sentries = People with 1-4 senses enhanced  
> •Wards = Ordinary people  
> •Guardians = Essentially the Kings of the canon K world. Guardians have Sentinel and Guide abilities, and were originally either Sentinels or Guides until they were chosen by the Slate and then given Sentinel or Guide powers as well (as the case may be). Their powers manifest to different degrees. For example, Mikoto's Guide ability is more instinctual - he reads people's feelings rather than thoughts. Ichigen's Guide ability is really strong and his speciality is being able to predict which option a person will eventually choose out of the many possibilities they are thinking of in their mind, even before they are even aware they are going to make a choice. Munakata has pretty balanced Sentinel and Guide abilities. Nagare has the ability to use his Guide powers to corrupt a telepathic bond and make a person think that others are saying certain things about them when they actually aren't. (I don't actually know if I'll get far along enough in this story to one day get around to writing about the other Kings, so just dumping this here.)  
> •Majority of the population are Wards or Sentries. All clansmen are Sentinels, with the majority becoming Sentinels only after getting their powers from their Kings. Naturally occuring Sentinels are rare. Though for those who were given Sentinel powers only through becoming clansmen, they are weaker than those who already had Sentry or Sentinel powers.


End file.
